Barnes & Webb

Chris Barnes and Paul Webb are passionate beekeepers first and foremost. They rent their hives to people and companies interested in learning about bees and getting their very own raw honey.

Starting with a course at the London Beekeepers’ Association, the pair went on to learning by doing. But the doing wasn’t always easy; in their first year they had a colony of particularly angry bees that went crazy and Chris ended up with about 40 stings and quite a serious reaction to the venom.

Over time they've become more experienced, and in the process they've built a large network of hives in different neighbourhoods all over the capital. At the moment, they are looking for retired beekeepers to employ to look after hives in their local area, and are also training the unemployed to look after bees.

Chris and Paul also produce ultra local honey from the London postcodes where they have their hives. All of their honey is from a single source, and it’s raw - nothing is added or taken away from the honey, it’s just filtered straight from the comb to the jar. The result are honeys with unique and complex flavour profiles and reflect their individual neighbourhoods.